


Origins

by AutisticWriter



Series: Harry Potter Autistic Headcanons [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Ableist Language, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Autism, Autism Spectrum, Autistic Arthur Weasley, Blood, Crying, Dyspraxia, F/M, Falling In Love, First Kiss, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Hate Crimes, Hurt/Comfort, One Shot, Pre-Canon, Sensory problems, Slurs, Special Interests, Undiagnosed Autism, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-24
Updated: 2016-09-24
Packaged: 2018-08-17 02:02:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8126114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AutisticWriter/pseuds/AutisticWriter
Summary: How Arthur and Molly meet, become friends, and fall in love.





	

Molly first noticed Arthur on the platform as she waited for the train which would be taking her to Hogwarts for the first time. In amongst the excited students chatting and bustling around, she noticed him. He was stood with a woman who must have been his mother, and two other boys, one shorter than him, and the other taller; both of the boys looked excited, and one of them was waving to get another boy’s attention. But, unlike the boys, who must have been his brothers, he wasn’t acting normally. He was bouncing on the balls of his feet, and he had his hands clamped over the sides of his head, covering his ears. His face was tense, and he was chewing on his lip.

Molly wondered what was wrong with him, but she didn’t get to ask, as, suddenly, the crowd was moving towards the train, and Mummy said to hurry up or they were going to miss it. Molly hurried to get onto the train, looking over at the boy as she did so. He looked even worse, his face red, and, when a girl bumped into him, he let out a small scream. His mother looked horribly embarrassed, and was steering him towards the train as he panicked. Feeling sorry for him, Molly wanted to ask what was wrong, but she lost sight of him after that.

\---

She didn’t see the boy who was Arthur until the groundskeeper was herding them towards the boats at the edge of the lake. Molly watched him glance over at the carriages taking the older students up to the school, his hands covering his ears again, and then back at the boats, an expression of complete confusion on his face.

“Excuse me,” he said to the groundskeeper, “but why do we have to take these boats? Why can’t we just go with the others in the carriages?”

The groundskeeper looked stunned, and Molly was certain no one had ever asked him a question like that before.

“It’s traditional, sonny,” he said, and they boy looked more confused than ever.

Something told Molly he didn’t understand the point of tradition at all.

\---

In the Great Hall, Molly found herself stood next to Arthur near the back of the line. They were both shivering, but she was sure part of his shivering was caused by fear. He didn’t seem to be able to stay still; his foot was tapping against the floor, and he was biting his fingernails. He looked very, very stressed again, and, now Molly was glad to have the chance to ask him if he was alright this time.

Making sure to keep her voice low, Molly leaned closer to Arthur and whispered, "Are you all right?"

He looked amazed to be being spoken to, and managed a small smile.

“Not really, no,” he said bluntly. “But I can cope.” And then, almost as an afterthought, he added, “Thank you for asking.”

Molly smiled, wondering what was wrong with this boy, because his behaviour really was rather strange. She wanted to say something else, but one of the teachers at the top table was staring at her, and her name was called.

It wasn’t a great surprise when she was sorted into Gryffindor – her whole family had been in that house for generations – but everyone looked incredibly confused when the hat called up “ _Weasley, Arthur_ ,” and yelled out, “ _Gryffindor!”_ only a few seconds later.

The whole room seemed to stare at Arthur as he took off the hat and cautiously made his way over to the table where Molly was sat. And, although it was cruel, Molly could kind of see why everyone looked so confused and unimpressed: because, as Arthur covered his ears and walked to the table with a terrified expression on his face, he didn’t look brave in the slightest.

\---

“See that boy over there?”

Molly was away from her book when her best friend, Jessica, spoke. She looked where Jessica was pointing, and spotted Arthur not that far from them. He had climbed a tree and was sitting in its branches, reading a book and swinging his legs.

“What? Arthur?”

Molly hadn’t spoken to Arthur in the few weeks since the Sorting, but she knew most of the Gryffindors in her year by name now, so she easily recognised him. There was something about Jessica’s tone that made Molly wonder if she disliked Arthur as much as the other students in their year seemed to.

“Yeah, well, you know when you missed Potions with the Slytherins yesterday?” Jessica said, her voice excited like she was going to tell her some gossip.

“Yeah?” Molly said, remembering how she got a migraine in Charms and had to go to the hospital wing; she ended up missing most of her lessons that afternoon.

“Well, Weasley totally freaked out,” Jessica giggled, obviously finding the memory amusing. “He looked like he was going to be sick, and he had his hands pressed over his nose and mouth. Slughorn had to take him outside to calm him down. When he came back in, he said to one of the boys the smells were making him feel sick, so Slughorn let him wear a mask over his nose and mouth.” She laughed again. “He looks so stupid wearing it, just you wait and see.”

Molly didn’t see why this story was funny. To be honest, she felt sorry for Arthur. Everyone already seemed to treat him like he was a joke, and this experience had probably made things even worse for him. She wanted to say something to Jessica, but she didn’t know how to tell her she didn’t think she was being funny without offending her. Luckily, something distracted both of them so she didn’t have to.

“Why are you talking about me?”

Molly and Jessica both jumped, and looked over at the tree. Arthur was staring at them, looking hurt. As they both stammered, not knowing what to say, he shoved his book into his pocket and awkwardly climbed down. Molly looked at him, hoping he wouldn’t think she was the one being cruel.

“I didn’t mean to look stupid,” he said, looking offended and slightly worried.

“I didn’t mean that . . .” Jessica said, looking slightly worried, as though she thought Arthur might curse her.

“But you did,” Arthur cut her off, “don’t pretend. You think I’m weird and stupid for getting overwhelmed, even though I can’t help it.”

Arthur was speaking a calm, matter-of-fact tone, but he was clicking his fingers and he looked stressed. He looked like he was going to say something else, or possibly cry, but, instead, he just walked away, running his hands through his messy hair. Molly wondered if she should go after him, but she eventually stayed with Jessica, a decision that later made her feel very guilty.

\---

In their next Potions lesson, sure enough, Molly saw from across the room that Arthur was wearing a mask across his nose and mouth. He still looked uncomfortable, though; Molly saw him screw his eyes up as he picked up something particularly slimy. She wanted to comfort him, but, again, she didn’t actually move. Arthur bounced up and down so violently that Professor Slughorn looked up sharply from his desk, and went over to him, wearing a puzzled expression.

“Weasley?” He said.

“Yes, sir?” Arthur said, his voice muffled by the mask.

“Are you all right?” Slughorn looked like he was worried Arthur might faint or something.

Arthur nodded. “Yeah, Professor, expect the texture of these is making me feel a bit sick.”

The whole class was just listening to Slughorn and Arthur by now, some of the boys were pulling faces and giving him rude hand gestures behind Slughorn’s back. Molly heard several people sneer; both Arthur and Slughorn didn’t seem to hear them.

Slughorn looked down, and then said, “Well, Weasley, it might help if you wore your dragon skin gloves.”

A few people giggled.

“Yes, Professor, but I can’t wear them either, because of the—”

“Texture!” Several people in the room said at the same time as Arthur. Laughter filled the room.

This time, Slughorn seemed to hear the laughter. He looked at Arthur’s flushed face, and then around the room, where no one was doing their work anymore.

“Well, then, I’d suggest writing to your parents to find some more comfortable gloves,” Slughorn said, and he smiled at Arthur. He raised his voice. “And can the rest of you please get back to your potions, please?”

As Slughorn went back to the front of the room and everyone resultantly turned away from Arthur, Molly looked over at him, and smiled. Arthur returned the smile, but he still looked like he wanted to cry.

\---

“Retard!”

“Spastic!”

One day, Molly turned a corner and found a group of three boys crowded around a figure on the floor, kicking them. At first, she wondered who they were hurting, but then it occurred to Molly that only one person at Hogwarts got called those names . . .

“Arthur!”

No longer caring about possibly getting hurt herself, Molly hurtled down the corridor as fast as she could, grabbing her wand and pointing it at the three attackers. They all turned and saw her, and Molly was pleased to see them looking scared.

“Get the hell away from him,” she hissed, and, before they could get their own wands, she disarmed them, and threw their wands down the stairs.

Thankfully, they went, leaving Molly with Arthur. She knelt down beside him, staring in horror at his bloody nose and the bruise on his forehead, thinking about all the times she should have helped him, but never did. But, now, she was doing it, she was helping him. Before she even had chance to speak, Arthur grabbed her arm and pulled her into a tight, awkward hug. Arthur was crying hysterically; he clung to her like he couldn’t let go. She was scared to be seeing him so upset, but she didn’t let go, knowing he needed the support. He was smearing blood all over the shoulder of her robes, but she didn’t care. She cared more about Arthur.

And that was when Molly knew she and Arthur were friends.

\---

Sometime near the end of second year, Molly, along with the girls she shared a dorm with, were looking through the forms they had to fill in to choose their classes next year, when she heard Arthur let out an excited cry from the other side of the room. Pretty much everyone looked over at him, wondering what was getting him so excited.

Arthur seemed to realise that everyone was staring at him, and ducked his head. A couple of people laughed. Molly quickly glanced down the form, and saw what was obviously making Arthur so excited: one of the subjects they could the next year was Muggle Studies.

Molly, being the only person who was actually nice to Arthur, knew why this excited him so much; he was obsessed with everything related to Muggles. He could talk to her for hours about everything to do with the Muggles and their way of life. In fact, if Molly didn't know better, she would have thought Arthur was a Muggleborn, he knew so much about Muggles.

Everyone had already gone back to what they were going, just shrugging off Arthur’s behaviour as him being weird, but Molly knew that Arthur wanted to get out of there. She looked over at him, and smiled, gesturing towards the staircases with her head. Arthur must have understood, because he nodded back and went over to the boys’ staircase. Molly followed him, and they made their way up the stairs.

Not that long after starting to become Arthur’s friend, Molly had learned that he didn’t sleep in a dormitory like the rest of them. According to Arthur, he had spent a week trying to sleep in the dorm with the other first year boys, but he couldn’t cope with it. He said the other boys were mean to him, and snored and fidgeted so much at night that he couldn’t sleep. He eventually ended up in the hospital wing, desperate for sleep and actually crying with exhaustion. After a meeting with his parents and Professor Dumbledore, Arthur ended up with a private bedroom next to his old dorm.

So, as his room was private, Molly and Arthur had found it to be a brilliant place to have a chat when they didn’t want to be overheard. But, mainly, Molly made sure to take Arthur there when he was feeling stressed, so he wouldn’t end up ‘freaking out’ in public.

Molly stood in the doorway as Arthur sat down on his bed.

“I hate it when they laugh at me,” he muttered.

“I know,” Molly said sympathetically, “I do too.”

“I was just excited. I just can’t wait to take Muggle Studies. Why is that funny?”

“It isn’t,” Molly said firmly. “They’re just horrible.”

Arthur smiled, but she wasn’t sure if he believed her.

\---

Molly decided that she and Arthur were definitely best friends by the beginning of their third year, judging by the way she felt a surge of excitement as she saw Arthur on the platform just before boarding the Hogwarts Express. Arthur was clearly excited to see her too; he ran towards her, tripping over his robes in the process and almost falling.

“Molly!” He cried delightedly.

“Hi, Arthur,” she said, beaming at him. It was so great to see him.

As they sat in the same compartment on the train (no one else was in there; everyone seemed to be avoiding Arthur), Molly realised, with a tight feeling in her chest, that she was Arthur’s only friend. This fact didn’t seem to bother Arthur, but it made Molly want to cry.

“Arthur?” She asked.

He was sat opposite her, and looked up from the Muggle leaflet about wiring plugs he was reading. “Yes?”

“Do you ever feel lonely?”

He stared at her forehead – he never, ever made eye contact – with an unreadable expression on his face.

“I used to be,” he said. “I never had a friend before I met you. But now . . .”

Arthur trailed off, and Molly realised that he was smiling at her. She smiled back, but had to quickly wipe her eyes so he wouldn’t notice that she was crying.

\---

Sometime after her fourteenth birthday, something suddenly occurred to Molly, and it worried her a little, for some reason. It was when she was sat in the shade under a tree, watching Arthur spin around with his arms outstretched, a wonderfully relaxed expression on his usually anxious face, his robes fluttering around him, that she realised that she fancied her best friend.

As much as she wanted to go out with Arthur, she immediately knew that she was never going to tell him that she fancied him, because there was no way she was going to risk losing what really was a wonderful friendship.

But she couldn’t help but wonder whenever she looked at him if Arthur would ever reciprocate her feelings.

\---

On Molly’s fifteenth birthday, Arthur hurried over to her the moment she stepped down the stairs and into the common room.

“Happy birthday, Molly,” he said, before she even had chance to say hello, thrusting a card and a clumsily wrapped present towards her.

Molly took them, smiling, at him. “Thanks.”

Molly glanced over the other side of the room, where the girls were sat, staring at them.

She took the card out of the envelope, and smiled. Arthur must have been listening when she was telling some of the other girls about wanting to learn to knit, because the image on the front of the card was a pair of knitting needles, which were knitting all by themselves. She opened the card, and began to read:

_To Molly,_

_Have a very, very Happy Birthday._

_I hope you like your present._

_From Arthur_

_P.S. Will you go out with me?_

Molly looked up at him, stunned, hardly daring to believe that her crush was asking her out. Arthur was staring at the mantelpiece, his face very, very red. But, as she looked at him, he started to look worried, tapping the tips of his thumbs against the tips of his fingers.

“Have, have I made a mistake?” He asked, and Molly felt like she wanted to cry as she looked at him, hating how scared he looked. A small smile crossed her face as she worked out what to do.

Without answering, she reached up and gave him a kiss. When Molly pulled away, Arthur blinked at her.

“I’ll take that as a no, then,” Arthur said, and they both laughed.

\---

Now Arthur was her boyfriend, Molly was even more protective of him than she was before. In the past, she had quietly told people not to call him names or laugh at him whenever he panicked, but, now, she got properly angry.

Like she was feeling right now, as she sat next to Arthur in Charms, and the boys sitting behind them kept calling Arthur a ‘spaz’. He did what he always did when people called him names, and ignored them; the only way anyone could know he was stressed was that his hands were shaking violently.

“Just leave it,” Arthur said, reaching for her hand; she squeezed his hand hard, knowing that pressure calmed him down. “They’ll get bored soon.”

But Molly couldn’t just leave it, and, when one of them hit Arthur in the back of the head with a ball of paper, she finally snapped.

“Shut up! Shut up! Leave him alone!” She yelled at the top of her voice.

And then there was silence, punctuated by laughter as people found her outburst funny.

“Prewett!” Professor Flitwick snapped, getting to his feet. “Outside! You too, Weasley.”

Molly glanced at Arthur, who looked puzzled that he was in trouble too, and they followed the teacher out of the room. Once they were outside and the door was shut, Flitwick’s face softened, and, when he spoke, he didn’t sound angry anymore.

“What happened?” He asked. He must have seen how stunned Molly looked (and how stressed Arthur looked), because he added, “You two are well behaved students. You wouldn’t act up in class for no reason. And,” Flitwick said as Molly opened her mouth to say something, “you’re not going to get detention, so don’t worry about that. So, what happened?”

Relieved that they weren’t going to get detention, Molly recounted the whole thing, still squeezing Arthur’s hand as he groaned when she said the word ‘spastic’. In the end, Flitwick let them back into class without punishment, and the boys who were taunting Arthur got detention instead.

Molly considered that a victory.

\---

As a celebration after taking their last N.E.W.T exams, the staff at Hogwarts traditionally let the seventh year students have what the Muggles would probably call a prom; to wizards, it was a ball. So, to the girls’ excitement, that meant getting dressed up and trying to find a date. Molly didn’t have to worry about a date, however, because she was obviously going with her boyfriend of two years.

Molly went down into the common room, and found Arthur standing by the fireplace, wearing his dress robes. He looked quite scruffy in them (they were wonky; he clearly hadn’t taken much care in putting them on), but they made him look more handsome than ever.

She approached him. Arthur smiled when she came up to him, and gave him a kiss. He clearly disliked the texture of lipstick on his own lips, because he quickly wiped his mouth on the back of his hand.

“How do I look?” She asked.

Arthur deliberated for a few seconds, before saying, “Well, your makeup is very pretty, but I don’t really like your hair like that, and a red dress doesn’t really work with your hair.”

Molly didn’t say anything, suppressing laughter at how bloody blunt he had just been. However, every other girl in earshot looked mortally offended on her behalf.

“Arthur!” Jessica cried. “How can you be so rude to your girlfriend?”

Arthur stumbled backwards, flinching at her loud voice, looking suddenly very nervous. He wrung his hands together.

“Did, did I say something wrong?” He asked, his voice shaking slightly.

Before Molly could reassure him (because she wasn’t remotely bothered by Arthur’s comment; not only was it rather helpful, when she thought about it, but she had known him long enough to be used to his totally blunt responses to honest questions by now), Jessica snapped at him again.

“Of course you did!”

Even though Molly usually argued the toss with people who were rude to Arthur, she couldn’t be bothered this time; she didn’t want to ruin their evening. So, with a sneering smile at Jessica, she took Arthur’s hand and led him out of the common room.

Once they were out of earshot of anyone else, Molly grabbed Arthur’s hands and looked up at his red face. “Look, Arthur, I think I need to explain something to you . . .”

And she proceeded to explain the stupid social rule to Arthur, telling him how when someone asks for a comment on your appearance, they aren’t genuinely asking for an honest answer: they want a compliment. So, unless you compliment them, most people will get serious offended.

“But that doesn’t make sense,” he said when she had finished, frowning.

“I know,” Molly said, sighing. “I wish everyone acted like you; life would be a lot simpler then.”

And the way Arthur smiled told Molly he’d had the same thought many times.


End file.
